27 March, 2011

Seleucid army arrayed (options for the 'b' list).

With the completion of the knight elements I can now field a Seleucid armies for the last three options of the DBA list (II/19b-d: 279-83BC). Apart from the 3Cm of the ‘c’ list and the 4Bd of the ‘d’ list I have all the options, though a good number are currently being borrowed from the Later Macedonian army until I paint ones for this army.

Some of the borrowed foot: all but the two leftmost are really for the Later Macedonians and even the those two will need to serve double roles.

They are largely Freikorp figures with some Gladiator ones. More images are available at the Army Page here.

Definitely not borrowed! Signature elements of the army, the elephant and scythed chariot.

27 March, 2011

I now have the knight elements finished for my Seleucid army. It’s now able to take the field, although it’s waiting on some elements and it’s borrowing others from the Later Macedonians.

From an different angle.

I’ve painted four elements. The first two are for the earlier period and consist of a command element of Companion cavalry (Freikorp HG22 with the commander from HG26) and another element of Agema, recruited from Medes (HG23).

Seleucid cataphract cavalry, fitting very nicely on their base.

The other two elements are both cataphracts (HG24). I described their painting over a number of earlier posts. I’m pleased with how the horn scale barding turned out.

26 March, 2011

The Seleucid cavalry is nearly done. I’ve got them painted and based. They’re just waiting for a wash and the flock. As it’s very humid here, I’m planning to wait a while before I do the wash. There are four elements, usable in three combinations. The earlier elements are two 3Kn; the command one is the Companions, more Macedonian in appearance and the other is the agema, apparently recruited from Medes and more eastern in their dress. The other two are two elements of 4Kn cataphracts. One of these is a command one. I’ve gone for similar colours with the earlier elements.

The companions and the agema. Until the wash is applied they look fairly garish.

For the period 279-205BC (II/19b) the two 3Kn are used; for the later periods (II/19c & d) the two 4Kn are used, although the commander can stay a 3Kn for the middle period (II/19c).

The cataphracts. There is no real commander figure for these. I just had to use gold paint and a white horse to mark one out.

23 March, 2011

I’ve now undercoated the Seleucid cavalry, and Monday night I painted one of the cataphracts to see how they’d look. I’m reasonably happy. It’s a bit bright, but I prefer it that way. I’ve used a mixture of ‘Scaly Green’ and ‘Shining Silver’ for horn barding. I’ll use this for half of the figures, and ‘Brazen Brass’ for the rest. I could use a steel colour for the armour, as that was what at least some of them used, but I think the ‘Brazen Brass’ will look better.

The completed figure, not yet given a matt finishing coat, along with some figures only undercoated.

21 March, 2011

Last Sunday I got over to John’s for the first time in a while and got in a couple of games of DBA. I decided to field a Seleucid army, using a pair of Polybian Roman cavalry for the 3Kn (they have quite long spears). As I’d not sorted out my boxes carefully enough after IWC, I found some of the elements weren’t where I thought. Therefore I fielded 2x3Kn (1=cmd), 1xEl, 1xSCh, 4x4Pk, 1x4Ax, 3x2Ps. The psiloi were able to hold their own against the Roman LH, and generally stayed out of the way of the 3Kn.

This was a vaguely historical match-up, allowing for a little temporal discontinuity! The Patsies were Eastern Romans who were on the offence both times, and had strayed back a few centuries, meeting Seleucids instead of Persians.

I laid out similar terrain in both games, a central small low hill and two small patches of BGo in opposing corners.

In the first game I doubled a LH with a Ps in a one on one combat first up, but didn’t have the PIPs to gain any advantage on that flank. On the other flank my SCh disappeared to a Kn, but a Ps held out at bad odds for a couple of turns against a LH, before the knight saw it off. Things were looking grim on that flank, but luck smiled on me and I attacked in the centre. Needing to push back his psiloi-supported blade with my elephant to set up an attack by 3Kn on his psiloi-supported Ax, I did better and 6-1 him, making it 3-1 to me. The 3Kn took out the Ax, who were now double overlapped giving me a 5-1 victory (not including the SCh). However, a turn more and his knights would have been into the rear of a block of pike.

The second game saw John advance his LH on one flank. In my first move I was able to attack the flank of them with my SCh. It got one recoiled into the other. It then pursued into the other and got it in the next turn. As my ambition for the day was to see the SCh in action I was very happy! John then advanced his 3Kn towards this flank, supported by auxilia. I had a 4Ax and a 2Ps over there and rather than go for the rest of his army on the low hill, I decided to send my elephant and a knight to help. The elephant failed to contact the knights, but met auxilia instead and was killed. The SCh rolled evens against a 3Kn and was gone too. The knight got a Ps, however, and it was 3-1 to me. I spent a while trying to get a lone 4Ax, who was flanked, but resisted for two turns. John was menacing my light foot with his knights, but rolled a 1 PIP when he could really have made trouble. I got 6 PIPs the next turn and was able to take out his Wb with my knight commander, and a blade with the other knight (I think). Anyway, it was another victory to me, owing largely to the splendid scythed chariot.

I enjoyed using the Seleucids and am keen to get the proper 3Kn and 4Kn elements for them done. I’ve finally got them undercoated. The 3Cm would be next.

20 March, 2011

I’m making slow progress on a few elements of Seleucid cavalry. These are Freikorp figures and rather nice, but with some nasty flash in places. I’ve finally got them cleaned up and ready to undercoat. They had some crud between their spear arm and their body, evidence of worn moulds. It took me a while to clean this off and drill out their hands. I had about a 50% success rate with the hands and after gluing on the xysta I decided to repair the hands somewhat with green stuff. This is a first for me, but I’m pretty pleased with the result.

The elements are two of 3Kn, one being a command. This consists of Attalos of Pergamum from HG26 and two Seleucid Companion Cavalrymen (HG22). I decided on a standard from the Carthaginian command set (CA11), as I’d got a few spare as part of my order. There seemed to be something similar shown in Duncan Head’s book Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars. I used the same for the other command element to create a bit of continuity in the army. The second 3Kn are Seleucid Agema cavalry (HG23) and have slightly different barding (more eastern) from HG22 and are wearing pants.

The two 3Kn figures. Attalos is in the middle and the Agema are on the right.

The other figures are cataphracts (HG24) for two 4Kn. One will be a command, but whether I try to put a cloak on the commander or not is undecided. They currently only have a standard to distinguish the command element from the other one.

The cataphract figures.

These figures, when painted, will allow me to field a Seleucid army; I have the elephant and scythed chariot already, and the rest of the foot will be generic Hellenistic ones at this stage. That aside, apart from the 3Cm and the 4Bd, I’ll have all the options for the armies of II/19b-d, the ultimate kitchen sink armies!

13 March, 2011

I’ve updated the army page for the Pre-feudal Scots. They had been rebased a while back, but I’d not got around to doing the finishing flocking. They were needed as a stand-in army for Greg at the IWC, which was the spur to do the flocking. They look much improved I feel.

The new look Pre-feudal Scots.

The old-look army.

I’d like to redo the rest of my Early Medieval armies, but I can’t see it happening at the moment. I really need to finish the Normans/Anglo-Normans to make it worthwhile, and I just don’t have the time. The only project I might get done is painting a couple of Seleucid knight elements to allow me to field that army (with generic Hellenistic pikes and light foot).